//------------------------------// // Episode 8: The Cold Blooded Bros! // Story: Dragon Ball TX // by MidnightTwister //------------------------------// Ponyville Saga Episode 8: The Cold Blooded Bros! A pair of Diamond Dog guards, clad in iron armor, stood underneath a hole to the surface. They stared blankly at the tunnel in front of them as they guarded the path behind. Finally, after what had seemed like forever to the Diamond Dogs, 5-10 seconds to the reader, and 10 minutes to the author, one of the guards sighed, looking at his feet. He looked slightly at the other guard (let’s just call them #1 and #2, kay?) and said, “Hey…” #2 looked slightly in the direction of #1. “Yeah?” “… You… You ever wonder why we’re here-?” The author’s lame attempt at a reference wall was suddenly interrupted by a group of ponies plus one Saiyan boy, landing on them from the hole above. The poor dogs were dazed and confused, but they fortunately served as makeshift cushions for our heroes and the royal guards accompanying them. They all got up and a unicorn royal guard created magical handcuffs to put onto the dogs. “Alright, let’s head on forward! We’ll split into two groups! The Royal Guards will go down there!” Twilight said as she pointed in the direction that the Diamond Dogs were facing. “Girls, we’ll go down here, and you too Cloud!” She added, pointing in the direction that was behind the diamond dogs. Everyone nodded to confirm that they knew they’re orders. “Good luck everypony!” She said as they all went their separate ways.   ~ Back With the Baddies ~ The Saurian brothers sat at the desk on the side where Spot, Rover, and Fido were originally sitting. On the other side was Mr. Furry, the boss of all the Diamond Dogs at Rambling Rock Ridge. On a contract, ink danced gracefully as the old dog finished signing his name. “There!” He said, pleased with his work. “Everything appears to be in order! The ponies are yours, and of course, the gems you promised are ours…” Orah, the large crocodile, and his lizard brother, Ghid, looked blankly at the piece of paper. They then covered their faces with one hand as they both slumped back in the chairs. The dogs behind and in front of them stared in confusion. “I-is there something wrong?” Mr. Furry asked, concerned. “No, not at all. In fact everything’s just peachy!” Orah said, his voice like a deep guttural growl. He then began to laugh hysterically, his younger brother joining in shortly after. The crocodile stood up, nearly reaching the office’s ceiling. He smiled widely, enabling everyone to see his sharp, pearly white teeth. His enormous claws reached for the paper, and he ripped it to shreds, tossing it all to the side. Spot, Fido, and Rover stared on in horror at what they had just witnessed. A promise, a dream of so many gems, literally ripped to shreds right in front of their eyes. They pathetically whimpered as they tried to gather all of the tiny pieces and put them together. Mr. Furry, however, was absolutely furious! “What have you done?! What is the meaning of this?!” He demanded. Ghid stopped his laughing and answered “What we just did was ACTUALLY somehow not laugh the entire time you were signing that stupid piece of paper!” Mr. Furry was confused, until he realized what the lizard met. “You idiot! Did you really think were really gonna hold our end of the bargain?! We were gonna take all your gems in this mine the moment you had all those ponies! But you actually believed we would work with you, so we decided to play along as a joke! And it… was… PRICELESS! HEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Ghid was laughing hysterically, clenching his sides as he wriggled in the chair and began wheezing. Mr. Furry was in shock, and the three other Diamond Dogs were virtually on the edge of tears at the betrayal. No, a betrayal would mean that they were honestly working with each other and one side decided to take everything for themselves. No, this was a prank, and the dogs were the poor fools who fell for it. “Ha… ha… ha… haaaaa… Hoo, boy! That was uh good one! Heehee, Orah, show the old geezer the door!” Ghid said as he tried to control himself, but still wound up laughing more. Furry wore a look of fear as a gigantic, green, scaly claw reached for the collar of his suit. Effortlessly, the croc dragged him over the desk, seemingly as though he weighed nothing, and threw him at the door, shattering it to pieces. The old dog was sent skidding across the floor, his clothes torn and his glasses broken. He looked up in the cages’ direction. Orah made his way out the door with his brother following behind. The crocodile had to turn sideways to get through due to his immense size. His eyes never left his prey as he pulled his gigantic hunting knife out from behind. “Don’t you worry… You won’t die, not just yet…” In very few steps, he made it to the downed dog and slowly reached for him, savoring the moment. “But is that really a good thing?” The old dog smiled slightly and turned to the killer croc. “I know it isn’t a good thing for you…!” He said, earning a confused glare. “Looks like the joke’s really on you…! Take a look at the cages! TAKE A GOOD LOOK YOU BRUTE!!!” Both brothers, Fido, Rover, and Spot included, looked at the cages. They were empty, but nothing too special- Empty… Empty… Empty… Both brothers stared with their mouths agape. Orah hurried to check all of the gates, cursing under his breath and talking about how he was going to place his boot somewhere between the ‘geezer’s’ lungs but just to the right of his sternum. Ghid wanted so badly to kill the old dog himself, but was too shocked to do anything at the moment but ask “What… kind of sick joke… IS THIS?!” “Hmhmhmhmhm…” Furry chuckled as he got up, straightened his collar, and patted dust off of his clothes. He placed a hand on the lanky lizard’s shoulder. He said in a calm, wise and professional tone “Well, old sport, you’re the comedian! You tell me! Hohoho!” He walked past the lizard as he put his paws in his pockets and walked back into his office. Orah picked up the last cage effortlessly, which must’ve weighed over a ton, and threw it across the entire room they were in, which was a good 40 or 50 feet. It landed on its side, and out came one of the diamond dog guards, dazed, confused, and quite frankly rattled. He fell to the floor and struggled to get up. “Here! Let me help ya!!” He roared, closing the 40 foot distance quickly. He picked the diamond dog up and asked “WHERE ARE THEY?!” “I-I-I dun-dunno…” The guard groaned wearily. Furious, Orah threw the guard across the room. He was going to run over and squash the mutt before Ghid stopped him. “Leave him be! I’m ticked too, but we gotta go and find those brats NOW!” Orah growled. “Bah! Fine!” ~ The Kiddos as they Flee ~ How long’s it been? 10 minutes? 20? 30? An hour? A Day? Oh, who knows. Down here in the gem mines, it feels like one minute is an hour. Or at least that’s what the CMC thought. They and the rest of the foals had been running around through the tunnels endlessly. Occasionally they’d come across a bunch of diamond dogs. They’d either try to outrun them or fight them if they had to. “GET THEM!” A diamond dog screeched as the mass of foals lead by the CMC came to a screeching halt in a big open space full of mining equipment. They were all very tired and out of breath, and to be honest, the odds didn’t seem to be in their favor. They wanted to stop for a second, but knew if they did they’d surely be captured. It ultimately came down to fight or flight, and freeze definitely wasn’t an option. “ATTAAAAAAACK!” The CMC yelled courageously as the foals behind them, with a sudden burst of adrenaline, charged. Looks like fight wins this time, but what about these poor foals? The two forces clashed. While outnumbered by the nearly 200 amount of fillies and colts, the Diamond Dogs were much stronger and deadlier. There were 40 or so dogs, and many of them were ganged up by a good number of foals. A diamond dog began to be overrun by 15 or so colts and fillies, but in a fit of anger and animal brutality, the dog knocked ten of them away in a single blow. He thoughtlessly charged towards the remaining 5 and made to pounce on them. Two fillies instantly closed the distance, turned around, and bucked him hard in the chin. The combined force of their kicks snapped his head upward, shattered his teeth, and sent him flying in a back flip. He crashed into a nearby wall, unconscious. 5 unfortunate foals were knocked out by two diamond dogs. Said dogs grabbed them by their tails and made to leave with them, but were confronted by more than 20 foals. They gulped in fear as the foals charged relentlessly, pouncing them and striking them with all of their might to save the young foals. The CMC and a number of other kids dispatched their 10th diamond dog. They looked around to see a good number of the diamond dogs had been either beaten or driven off in fear. However, a good number of ponies were either knocked out or sadly taken. “C’mon everypony! Ya’ll can do it! Jus’ a little more t’go!” Apple Bloom encouraged. The little Apple filly took a second to breathe, only to be pushed out of the way by Sweetie Belle as a Diamond Dog leapt for her. The dog crashed headfirst into the ground, dazed for the moment. Scootaloo ran up to him and bucked him to the side of the head, knocking him out cold. Man, and it was a buck right to the temple, too. Might be out for a while… “Dangnabbit! Cain’t we catch a break?!” The earth filly demanded. At that moment, loud thumping was heard just nearby. Everyone heard it, and for a moment they stopped. Out from a nearby tunnel came… “GET THESE KIDS OUTTA HERE!!!” A Royal Guard ordered! All of the kids cheered in joy and made it for the tunnel the Royal Guards had come down from. Looks like the CMC really can have that long awaited breather. The girls hurried up to a guard who wasn’t fighting at the moment. He looked at them and said “You kids need to get outta here! Now! Go back the way we came, hug left, and you’ll see two guards guarding the entrance! They’ll take you up-” Sweetie Belle interrupted him and said “Some of us were taken on our way out of here! You have to save them!” The stallion nodded. “Understood. We’ll wrap this up quick, but you-” “RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!” A boom was heard as everyone stopped yet again. They looked to one of the cave walls to see a gaping hole with dust clouds pouring out of it. And coming out of it was a very, very angry Orah with his younger brother behind him. Ghid was also very angry, but was more capable of controlling his temper unlike a certain cold blooded relative of his who was standing not even a foot away from him. All of the diamond dogs trembled at the sight of the angry Orah and immediately made their way towards the exit, abandoning their previous cause, leaving just the CMC and the Royal Guards. The guard looked towards the CMC immediately and said “Get out of here now!” The CMC left immediately for the exit. Now it was just the Royal Guards and the Cold Blooded Bros… ~ Back With Cloud and the Mane 6~ Our heroes continued to run through the tunnels, not knowing if they were going in the right direction or not. Honestly, this place was like a labyrinth, and not the kind where David Bowie is there to make things really interesting, either… Poor Cloud was the one who was most bored, with Pinkie as a close 2nd. Everypony else was either irritated or didn’t seem to express any other emotion as they tried to remain focused. In his boredom, the boy thought back to the pair of brothers he heard of before and asked “So who’re the Full Putty Bros.?” “The Cold Blooded Bros.!” Twilight corrected. She added “They’re brothers who do really bad things. You know lizards right? Well, they stand on two legs and have hands like you, but their lizards, or at least one of them is an actual lizard…” “I… I think… I get it?” Cloud said, not really catching what she said. Twilight sighed. “Well, there’s a big one and a small one! The small one is Ghid. Everypony knows how he fights! He has these canisters full of Manticore poison! He uses them to end his fights quickly!” Rainbow added her own thoughts, saying “Yeah! He’s a lazy coward who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty!” “Who can blame him?” Rarity said. Everyone but Cloud glared at her. “…What?” “Anyways, he’s not the most dangerous one, he’s just a little tricky! Anypony with half a brain could take him on so long as they knew how he fought!” Rainbow said. “I think I get it now.” Cloud said as he started understanding what they were telling him. “What about the big one?” Twilight gulped as she thought about Orah. “The giant crocodile, Orah, is a total brute! He’s the one who does all the fighting!” Cloud’s Saiyan blood began to boil in excitement as a smile formed on his face. “Really?! I can’t wait to fight these guys! It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun!” “No!” Twilight protested. “He’s not fun at all! He can lift well over 10 tons and destroy entire houses easily! Hay! There’s even a rumor that he won in an arm wrestling match against a Dragon!” This info only served to excite the young Saiyan even further. That is until… “Cloud! Look, I know yer a good kid, but there’s somethin’ ya need tah get through yer head: These guys are real bad - they’re evil! They hurt innocent ponies! They kill fer fun! They do the worst things imaginable!” Applejack said. “Especially that Orah! Worst thing is, no pony even knows how he’s so dang strong!” Rainbow Dash added “No pony that evil ever deserves that kind of strength!” “I don’t like getting into fights… BUT THEY WILL PAY IF THEY HURT OUR SISTERS!” Rarity yelled. The mares sped up… But Cloud lagged behind slowly. He fell farther and farther behind until he eventually came to a complete stop. His friends, the happy bunch he had just met today… They were not only angry… They were scared for their loved ones. And they were scared for their own lives, too! These guys were truly evil! And here Cloud was talking about how fun it would be to fight these guys! ‘How… How…’ Cloud thought as he looked down at his feet with guilt. ‘…How could I say something like that…?’ He looked back up at the mares as they continued, unaware that he had stopped. Cloud’s fist clenched tightly and he made a mad dash to catch up. As he stood there, the mares had gotten about as far as a 20 meters. Cloud caught up in mere seconds, and even got ahead of them when previously he was behind them. And he wasn’t even breaking a sweat. The girls’ separate trains of thoughts were derailed when they saw the boy. There was a different air to him as he got farther and farther ahead of them. Though they couldn’t see his face to make out his expression, they felt an emotion similar to their own. But it felt strange coming from this happy go lucky kid because it felt… It felt like anger? Indeed, Cloud was angry. He wore on his face a serious expression as an intense flame burned within his eyes. ‘I’m not gonna let them get away!’ He thought as he clenched his fists even tighter. ~ A Couple of Minutes Later ~ The Mane 6 accompanied by Cloud made it at long last to… The entrance of the mine. “Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow yelled. “We just went in a circle!” Everypony shared her irritation, but Cloud was especially angry. He hurried to two guards posted below the entrance. Currently they were filing all the foals out. “You guys!” Cloud said. The two guards turned to look at the boy. “Do you know where the Coco… uh, Cod… Co… Ugh, the bad guys! Do you know where they are?” He asked urgently. “They’re back where we came from!” A familiar tomboyish voice said. The mares looked to see the CMC, and the CMC looked to see the mares. “SIS!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom exclaimed. They ran up to hug their older sisters. Meanwhile, Scootaloo and Rainbow ran up to each other and hugged, but remembered that they were supposed to be the tough ones of the group and broke their hug. However, they chose to let it slide this one time and hugged again. At the sight of the family reunion, Cloud smiled. However, he quickly remembered the bad guys who rightly deserved a good beating. This happiness had to wait. Cloud turned in the direction of the bad guys and took off like a bullet. ~ Guards Versus The Cold Blooded Bros. ~ Orah laughed manically as his younger brother leaned against the wall, thinking to himself. “Oh, you’re still alive and kicking?” The crocodile said with slight surprise as a guard tried to stand. He grabbed the stallion by the neck and threw him into the wall. The stallion hit the wall with enough force to create large cracks and making him cough up large quantities of blood. Suddenly, a Unicorn guard ran up to Orah and attempted to impale him with his horn. However, the croc quickly turned around and grabbed the stallion by the head. He lifted the guard up and threw him into the wall, knocking him unconscious. “RAAAAAAH!” A Pegasus screamed. She flew in and landed a kick to the croc’s head, only for it to have no effect. He grabbed her by the mane, spun her around and let go, sending her flying into a wall. Orah heard the sound of running coming towards him from behind. He clenched his fist and turned around to deal a massive right punch. *BAM* Orah was hit, and he was hit hard, right on the side of his long jaws. He was sent flying into and through the stone wall. Ghid was shocked at the sight, actually unable to fully process what he had just seen. What is it that hit Orah, you ask? Why, it was none other than Cloud! And he wasn’t too happy, either… Cloud quickly looked around at the guards. Though many appeared unconscious, a few had the strength to stand up, at least just now they did. “Get everypony out of here!” Cloud said to them. The guards didn’t know quite what to do or say, not after seeing a 12 year old monkey boy just punch a 7 foot tall, 500 pound crocodile man through a stone wall. Speaking of which… Orah emerged out of the gaping hole in the wall, a confused look on his face. He shook his head and spit out a bit of blood and a tooth and asked “WHAT JUST HIT ME?!” Cloud looked at the killer croc with a serious expression on his face, the same fire from before burning in his eyes yet again. He said fiercely “Me… that’s what!” Orah’s face switched from confused to shocked, and then he smiled and laughed loudly. “You?! Hit me?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The crocodile said in disbelief, throwing his head back in laughter. Cloud suddenly disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared right in front of the croc. He clenched his fist and punched the croc in the stomach. Orah hunched over as it felt like the Saiyan had just punch straight through him. “HAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cloud screamed, throwing a barrage of powerful punches. He then landed a left elbow to the gut, a right upper cut, and finally a roundhouse kick across the face to send Orah into another wall. Orah got up much quicker this time with a serious look on his face as the ponies behind Cloud stared on in awe. Cloud clenched his fist tightly in front of his face and said “You AND your brother are both gonna pay!” Just in the nick of time, Cloud saves the day, coming in with a series of impressive punches that leave even the evil brothers amazed! Cloud is serious now and ready for a fight to end their reign of terror! Will he succeed?! Find out in the next exciting episode of DRAGON BALL TX!